This invention relates generally to material balers and in particular to a system for attaching a band around a bale and to a buckle for use with that system.
Baled materials or commodities, such as trash, recyclables, cotton, and rectangular bales of hay (commonly referred to as square bales) are traditionally bound together with twine, the twine being looped tightly around the bale by a mechanical baler during the baling process and the ends tied together by a subassembly of the baler known as a knotter.
In order to save on transportation and storage costs, it is sometimes desirable to pack the bales as densely as possible. This is particularly true of large bales which are handled using mechanized equipment which is inherently capable of handling the increased weight of denser bales. With the previous technology, the amount of material that can be packed into a bale is limited by at least the tensile strength of the twine and by the strength of the knots. Twine may also have a relatively high rate of elasticity which limits the density of the bale due to potential stretching issues. What is needed is a higher strength baling system which can effectively contain a denser bale without breaking or stretching excessively. The present invention solves such an issue.